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6 TEACHER JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010
I recently took my Year 9 class from the
Perth Waldorf School to Ningaloo Reef,
Australia's largest and most accessible fring-
ing coral reef, on the north coast of Western
Australia. We drove by bus for the best part
of two days, leaving the rainy south west
for the dry, desolate and beautiful red dirt
country.
I took with me 19 students, mainly
WA born and bred, with two students on
exchange from Denmark and Austria. The
stand out thing about the trip itself for the
international students was the vast distance
we travelled. As Christoph, from Austria,
put it, we went through 'Lots and lots of
nothing.'
I was accompanied by one of the school's
stalwart parents and by local Perth leader,
athlete and Bardi-Nyoongar woman Casey
Narrier.
It was about as off-campus as you could
get. All up, we travelled about 3,600 kilo-
metres into a very remote part of the planet.
We shared fantastic experiences. We swam
with thousands of fish, investigated enor-
mous brain corals, watched migrating
humpback whales and families of dolphins,
and had the odd turtle swim through our
classroom.
One of the unexpected professional ben-
efits for me was to discuss with my adult
colleagues the tool kit of skills, knowledge
and experience we teachers need in order to
WHEN YOUR CLASSROOM IS UNDERWATER, AND 1,600 KILOMETRES FROM YOUR
SCHOOL, YOU KNOW THAT YOU'RE REALLY TEACHING OUT OF DOORS, AND THAT
YOU'RE DEPENDING ON A SWAG OF PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE TO ENSURE THE
LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS SAFE, AND A SUCCESS, AS CAMERON EGLINGTON EXPLAINS.
Life's a beach
School's a reef